Either yesterday's Vans Warped Tour 2010 was really as awful as it felt, or I've become a cranky old man who just can't handle a little warm weather. Still -- holy shit, kids. You don't know misery until you try and breathe and realize the air you're trying to take in is getting superheated by the blacktop beneath your feet -- the blacktop, by the way, that you shouldn't stand on for too long unless you want to feel the soles of your sneakers begin to soften.
Pennywise was playing on the Sandstone Amphiteater stage, and let's just say I can understand why longtime lead singer Jim Lindberg left the band last year. I caught enough of the band doing "Alien" and watching their new lead singer, Zoli Téglás, move around while the rest of the band stood there trying not to move. It was sad, and a little depressing to see a band you've been waiting 14 years to see again kill your teenage memories.
Scott Spychalski
Emmure was the first band on the main stage, and played fairly brutal metalcore. They had the dubious honor of being the first band to get the audience to form a space for a huge-ass pit, telling the audience they wouldn't start until everybody got the fuck back. They then played a song that was, my my measurement, half as long as they exhorted the audience to move so people could show off their hardcore dance moves.
After that, I wandered around a little, discovered that Sum 41 wasn't playing our date, and waited out the time until I could catch Alkaline Trio. Water seemed to be sold exclusively by folks from New Zealand, whose accents managed to land them more tips than they might have gotten otherwise. Being called "mate" by an adorable Kiwi lass seemed to have many a young man parting with the change from a fiver.
Despite some issues with Matt Skiba's guitar in the monitors for the first song of the band's set, Alkaline Trio kicked some ass. They played "Dine, Dine My Darling" off the new album, and dug way back to Goddamnit for "Clavicle," which got me right into the crowd, singing along and finger-pointing with a crowd that seemed to consist almost exlcusively of high schoolers in either in bras and bikini tops, or simply shirtless, depending on their gender. The band's set seemed odd to see. The Chicago threesome isn't exactly the sort of band suited for a quarter 'til 2 in the afternoon.
Left Alone is that sort of band, however. Their high-energy punk-ska hybrid comes off like a second-rate Rancid on record, but every time I've seen them live, they have never failed to entertain. Yesterday afternoon was no exception. They've added a keyboard player to their live line-up since I last saw them, and the songs have a Costello-like feel because of that. Their bass player, Jimmy Jam, switched to a stand-up bass (or, as a young man in the audience termed it, "a big violin") for "I Hate Emo," and the songs took a rockabilly turn after that. The audience, though small though, was by far the most engaged group of kids I've seen at Warped Tour since MC Chris played a couple years back.
I caught enough of Rev. Peytons Big Damn Band to know two things: 1) the band is not very big at all, and is in fact a three-piece and 2) they'd be pretty awesome if I'd never heard of Waylon Jennings. Derivative doesn't even begin to describe the band's country jam vibe.
By this point, I'd drank two liters of water, and 20 ounces of Gatorade. I went in to use the bathroom, and my knees buckled in the oppressive humidity inside. After my vision stopped swimming and I didn't feel like I was going to vomit, it was time to leave. Had I managed to make it a little longer, there was still Fake Problems, Whitechapel, Reel Big Fish, Dillinger Escape Plan, Suicide Silence, and more to go. Sorry, Warped Tour -- your lineup was even better this year than the one you had last year, but I really didn't feel like going to the hospital.
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Well the show in the northwest has the dropkick murphies, everclear, and sum41, and for 25 bucks, thats three bands id go see any day. Dropkick murphies blow up on stage, they alone are amazing to see, you just saw the show on the wrong day dude!
In Rev. Peyton's defense, his band is much more suited to an intimate setting. I was very happy that they got the chance have the exposure of the Warped Tour, and I hope it means more people come to support them when they play at Knuckleheads.
Warped Tour sucks now. And this isn't because I'm 10 years older from the last one I went to, but really it just isn't the same. I remember seeing NOFX, followed by Kool Keith, followed by pre-mallgoth AFI, and the relaxing vibes of Long Beach Dub All Stars.
Now? nothing but scene bands and dorks that got into Mom and Dad's old box of clothes from 1987
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